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Review: Ok, so the Speicher 95 series from Cologne's mythical Kompakt label is always capable of pleasing all sorts of DJs, from the shady outsider freaks to the progressive show-off, but having Laurent Garnier on top of that feels like striking gold. The legendary French producer and DJ doesn't exactly release a lot of music these days, so a new two-tracker by the man feels like something truly special to adorn our charts with. On the A-side, "1-4 Doctor C'est Chouette" is an explorative house voyage with plenty of life and organic energy behind its deep web of bass tones and spaced-out melodies; the flip, "From The Crypt To The Astrofloor", is another story altogether - Garnier enters a new realm of cerebral fantasy here, a world that sits more in line with films like Akira or Blade Runner rather than a basement dance floor. Magic.

Review: Laurent Garnier began the LBS (Live Booth Sessions or Loud Bass & Samples) concept in 2010, as a means of experimenting with live techniques. The crew incorporates Garnier himself, as well as Benjamin Rippert on keyboards and Scan X on machines. The Timeless EP begins with "Jacques In The Box" delivering a full-impact slice of techno sprinkled with surging synthesisers and climbing polyphonic key strokes. The percussion seems to melt into one element as the kick drum drives this fast, hard and slightly euphoric techno jam. Loud Disco's mix of "Our Futur" will surely capture the ears of any large crowd caught in the reverie of a darkened nightclub, with a notable chord progression and sharp, saturated snare drum.

Review: 'Kings of Techno' is the 6th instalment in a compilation series that grows more ubiquitous with each release. Over 130,000 albums have been sold in a series that brings together globally renowned DJs & producers to reveal their favourite tracks in the genre they themselves have become best known for. 'The Kings Of' albums allow compilers to make choices well beyond the usual restraints imposed on them. Each release features striking artwork from 60s Rolling Stones photographer & bon viveur extraordinaire Michael Joseph. Techno has its roots in Detroit, more precisely in the eclectic late radio programs of Charles "The Electrifying Mojo" Johnson which heavily featured early electronic works (Moroder, Kraftwerk...) and funk, giving birth to a new genre in the mind of a fistful of African-American students, 'The Belleville Three': Derrick May, Juan Atkins & Kevin Saunderson. Featuring a percussive, synthetic sound and a 4/4 beat, techno developed from a strictly underground phenomenon to an established, global genre when it came to England and from there the rest of the world. But this album is not your average techno mix album. How could it be - it features two of dance music's most significant players of the last 15 years. Laurent Garnier was one of the first Europeans to mix American house and techno music in Britain, earning his crown in the glory days of the Hacienda in the late 80s. Some tracks of his mix will be immediately recognizable as techno, such as the obscure 'Just A Feeling' by Instinct - deeply evocative of a 101 lost weekends in the 'Hac', as it affectionately became know by regulars - or the phenomenal 'Utopia' by Jeff Mills - a track which best defines the atmospheric soundscapes associated with the genre. But far from being strictly techno, Garnier's mix is both a testimony to the genre's main influences and an eclectic tribute to the town that saw its emergence: Detroit. The great beauty of his mix is the layering of the many styles, travelling from Alice Coltrane and Aretha Franklin to The Stooges, from Motown's Temptations to Slum Village to futuristic hip-hop-anthem-in-the-making Dabrye's collaboration with Jay Dee on 'Game Over'. Carl Craig grew up in Detroit; his diverse musical output has gained him fans from a broad range of musical backgrounds. Considered as one of the main figures of the second generation of Detroit techno producers, his extensive DJing all over the world witnessed the development of the genre. In direct contrast to Laurent's mix, his takes in music that mostly emanated from Europe. Like Laurent's, some falls easily into the techno category: Nitzer Ebb's industrial bass heavy 'Join In The Chant' fits seamlessly with Capricorn's 'I Need Love' from defunct early 90s trance label Sperm Records. Visage and Human League will be remembered for European chart success in the glory days of late 70s, early 80s pop music, the former perhaps better known for their hit 'Fade To Grey', the latter for their massive 'Don't You Want Me Baby'. Both had a high voltage current running through their music and significantly these tracks still gain a cheer on today's dance floor. So expect the unexpected, once again the meeting of minds in the 'Kings Of' series has spawned an informed, genre-defying double CD that's mixed to perfection, and that takes us on a journey from which we won't want to, or simply can't, return.

Review: 'Kings of Techno' is the 6th instalment in a compilation series that grows more ubiquitous with each release. Over 130,000 albums have been sold in a series that brings together globally renowned DJs & producers to reveal their favourite tracks in the genre they themselves have become best known for. 'The Kings Of' albums allow compilers to make choices well beyond the usual restraints imposed on them. Each release features striking artwork from 60s Rolling Stones photographer & bon viveur extraordinaire Michael Joseph. Techno has its roots in Detroit, more precisely in the eclectic late radio programs of Charles "The Electrifying Mojo" Johnson which heavily featured early electronic works (Moroder, Kraftwerk...) and funk, giving birth to a new genre in the mind of a fistful of African-American students, 'The Belleville Three': Derrick May, Juan Atkins & Kevin Saunderson. Featuring a percussive, synthetic sound and a 4/4 beat, techno developed from a strictly underground phenomenon to an established, global genre when it came to England and from there the rest of the world. But this album is not your average techno mix album. How could it be - it features two of dance music's most significant players of the last 15 years. Laurent Garnier was one of the first Europeans to mix American house and techno music in Britain, earning his crown in the glory days of the Hacienda in the late 80s. Some tracks of his mix will be immediately recognizable as techno, such as the obscure 'Just A Feeling' by Instinct - deeply evocative of a 101 lost weekends in the 'Hac', as it affectionately became know by regulars - or the phenomenal 'Utopia' by Jeff Mills - a track which best defines the atmospheric soundscapes associated with the genre. But far from being strictly techno, Garnier's mix is both a testimony to the genre's main influences and an eclectic tribute to the town that saw its emergence: Detroit. The great beauty of his mix is the layering of the many styles, travelling from Alice Coltrane and Aretha Franklin to The Stooges, from Motown's Temptations to Slum Village to futuristic hip-hop-anthem-in-the-making Dabrye's collaboration with Jay Dee on 'Game Over'. Carl Craig grew up in Detroit; his diverse musical output has gained him fans from a broad range of musical backgrounds. Considered as one of the main figures of the second generation of Detroit techno producers, his extensive DJing all over the world witnessed the development of the genre. In direct contrast to Laurent's mix, his takes in music that mostly emanated from Europe. Like Laurent's, some falls easily into the techno category: Nitzer Ebb's industrial bass heavy 'Join In The Chant' fits seamlessly with Capricorn's 'I Need Love' from defunct early 90s trance label Sperm Records. Visage and Human League will be remembered for European chart success in the glory days of late 70s, early 80s pop music, the former perhaps better known for their hit 'Fade To Grey', the latter for their massive 'Don't You Want Me Baby'. Both had a high voltage current running through their music and significantly these tracks still gain a cheer on today's dance floor. So expect the unexpected, once again the meeting of minds in the 'Kings Of' series has spawned an informed, genre-defying double CD that's mixed to perfection, and that takes us on a journey from which we won't want to, or simply can't, return.

Review: 'Kings of Techno' is the 6th instalment in a compilation series that grows more ubiquitous with each release. Over 130,000 albums have been sold in a series that brings together globally renowned DJs & producers to reveal their favourite tracks in the genre they themselves have become best known for. 'The Kings Of' albums allow compilers to make choices well beyond the usual restraints imposed on them. Each release features striking artwork from 60s Rolling Stones photographer & bon viveur extraordinaire Michael Joseph. Techno has its roots in Detroit, more precisely in the eclectic late radio programs of Charles "The Electrifying Mojo" Johnson which heavily featured early electronic works (Moroder, Kraftwerk...) and funk, giving birth to a new genre in the mind of a fistful of African-American students, 'The Belleville Three': Derrick May, Juan Atkins & Kevin Saunderson. Featuring a percussive, synthetic sound and a 4/4 beat, techno developed from a strictly underground phenomenon to an established, global genre when it came to England and from there the rest of the world. But this album is not your average techno mix album. How could it be - it features two of dance music's most significant players of the last 15 years. Laurent Garnier was one of the first Europeans to mix American house and techno music in Britain, earning his crown in the glory days of the Hacienda in the late 80s. Some tracks of his mix will be immediately recognizable as techno, such as the obscure 'Just A Feeling' by Instinct - deeply evocative of a 101 lost weekends in the 'Hac', as it affectionately became know by regulars - or the phenomenal 'Utopia' by Jeff Mills - a track which best defines the atmospheric soundscapes associated with the genre. But far from being strictly techno, Garnier's mix is both a testimony to the genre's main influences and an eclectic tribute to the town that saw its emergence: Detroit. The great beauty of his mix is the layering of the many styles, travelling from Alice Coltrane and Aretha Franklin to The Stooges, from Motown's Temptations to Slum Village to futuristic hip-hop-anthem-in-the-making Dabrye's collaboration with Jay Dee on 'Game Over'. Carl Craig grew up in Detroit; his diverse musical output has gained him fans from a broad range of musical backgrounds. Considered as one of the main figures of the second generation of Detroit techno producers, his extensive DJing all over the world witnessed the development of the genre. In direct contrast to Laurent's mix, his takes in music that mostly emanated from Europe. Like Laurent's, some falls easily into the techno category: Nitzer Ebb's industrial bass heavy 'Join In The Chant' fits seamlessly with Capricorn's 'I Need Love' from defunct early 90s trance label Sperm Records. Visage and Human League will be remembered for European chart success in the glory days of late 70s, early 80s pop music, the former perhaps better known for their hit 'Fade To Grey', the latter for their massive 'Don't You Want Me Baby'. Both had a high voltage current running through their music and significantly these tracks still gain a cheer on today's dance floor. So expect the unexpected, once again the meeting of minds in the 'Kings Of' series has spawned an informed, genre-defying double CD that's mixed to perfection, and that takes us on a journey from which we won't want to, or simply can't, return.

Review: Totalling 23 tracks, 'Retrospective' is a grand summation of the works of Laurent Garnier since he started the F Communications label in 1992. The album includes studio, live, remix and rare versions of some of his best loved works among them 'The Man With The Red Face', 'Crispy Bacon', 'Greed', 'Acid Eiffel', 'Flashback' and his first single 'Astral Dreams', as well as five tracks never before released on CD. Laurent Garnier continues to forge ahead of his peers in terms of cultural impact. In the last five years alone he has written a book 'Electrochoc' (published around Europe to great acclaim), progressed from Music Controller at France's Radio Nova radio station to running his own station Pedro Broadcasting (PBB) while touring the world with the 'Unreasonable Behaviour' album and subsequent live set, and more recently performing Cinemix shows - a live soundtrack to very rare archive anthropological footage from the late 1800s - the most significant set of which was at La Louvre in Paris earlier this year. Laurent is set to stage one of these performances in London in September.

Review: The second release on Nowhere doubles down on the label's commitment to no-nonsense, old-skool techno, and they're doing so with a heavyweight cast of characters. Laurent Garnier leads the charge with a grungy high-pressure joint which purposefully reaches for a spectrum of freaky tropes to create something very special indeed. The incredible D-Knox follows up with some rugged, brain-warping machine funk, while Frantic System jacks things up good and proper and Roland Klinkenberg throws down a freaky, percussive drum track for DJs to have a LOT of fun with. Keeping things rough and ready like the best techno should be, this is the perfect way to look back and press forwards all in the same beat.

Review: Here's something conceptual from everyone's favourite veteran French DJ/producer: an expansive box set containing tracks from his five thrillingly varied 2014 EPs, a previously unheard 12" (entitled Honey, I'm Home), and a shedload of brand new remixes from the likes of Marc Romboy, Traumer and Husbands. Furthermore, the box set marks the surprise resurrection - for this release only, apparently - of Garnier's once-lauded F Communications label. Musically, La Home Box is rather typical of the French legend, including as it does blistering techno, throbbing house, quirky electronica and bumpin' instrumental hip-hop. If that's not enough to get you reaching for your wallet, he's also included a bonus CD and numbered poster. Tres bien!

Review: Laurent Garnier's rebirth as a producer during 2014 - a year when he released five 12" singles on as many labels - is arguably one of the most heartening dance music stories of recent times. La Home Box, released on his revived F Communications imprint, charts that rebirth, gathering together tracks from those releases with a smattering of previously unheard cuts. It offers a snapshot of Garnier's long-displayed eclecticism, featuring not only throbbing techno stompers and woozy, darkwave-influenced house, but also experimental hip-hop, synth-wave and, in the case of "Bang (The Underground Doesn't Stop)", a dash of Head High style, piano-laden jack.

Review: The legendary Laurent Garnier, a man who has been so important to the house and techno world over the last twenty years thanks to seminal tunes like "Crispy Bacon", lands on his native F Communications (another solid club outlet!) with a sparkling new three tracker. "Drifting In Midwater" is a funky yet strangely eerie house melter filled with wonky, processed sonics and a classy, almost jazzy vibe. On the B-side, "I'm Going Home" is the techno sibling and its stop-start beat attack fits in total unison with the rolling trap of a bassline circling below it, whereas "And The Party Goes" heads into lo-fi territories: a drunken beat groove eats its way through hypnotic melodies and distant chords. Class, as per usual...

Review: For the first time since 1997, Laurent Garnier's earliest studio productions are available on wax. "French Connection" harks back to 1991, a time when Garnier spent a lot of his time travelling between Paris and Manchester. It was in the latter city that he met Mix Master Doody AKA Dream Frequency's Ian Bland, an experienced producer and studio engineer who co-produced the EP's six cuts. Musically, "French Connection" has stood the test of time better than a lot of dancefloor-focused music from the period. There's something wonderfully naive and glassy-eyed about its endearing mixture of heavy techno rhythms, post-Chicago house beats and loved-up, hardcore-era elements (piano riffs, female vocal samples, and so on). Crucially, all six cuts would slip easily into many contemporary house and techno sets.

Review: Former chef turned techno legend Laurent Garnier is celebrating 25 years of his mighty label F Comms with a series of special reissues. Next int he spotlight is his own seminal tune 'Flashback.' The a-side is taken up by a Laboratoire Mix that fuses a groaning, textured synth lead with dancing percussion and soulful techno landscaping. The reverse start with Lil Louis's Civilized instrumental 'Painting' which is ripped apart by the sound of a super car's blasting exhaust, then comes the original version, a straight up and business-like dark and moody techno workout.

Review: Not content with delivering one of last years biggest techno moments with two superlative takes on Carl Craig's seminal "At Les" Christian Smith turns his hand to another deity of the techno realm in Laurent Garnier. In tandem with Brazilian techno icon Wehbba, they drop two alternate versions of Larry's iconic late nineties track "Flashback" with the 3am mix teasing out that distinctive bassline with such panache before it drops with an immensity that Garnier himself was moved to comment "This mix is f*cking brilliant, I LOOOVE IT I will hammer it everywhere LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE THIS" You can't get a higher recommendation than that! The flipside remake remains truer to the original track but is sort of overshadowed by the intensity of the A Side.

Review: Old school meets new school here, as French techno stalwart Laurent Garnier joins forces with rising star Chambray for a cheery, glassy-eyed workout on Rekids. In its original form, "Feelin' Good" is a rushing chunk of piano-driven techno positivity, where sparkling riffs, fuzzy analogue electronic motifs and nagging electronics burst through a tough but squeezable techno beat. It should be an essential listen for all those hankering after something that recalls the celebratory glee of the early '90s while sounding suitably contemporary. Label boss Radio Slave steps up to remix, first re-imagining it as a dreamy but powerful jack track, before embracing his inner hardcore hero on a breakbeat and piano-heavy flip that's as rush-inducing as triple dropping the strongest happy pills around.